Enemy Combatants? Well, Yeah! That’s Their Defense

The Bush administration drew endless flak from the left for treating Islamic terrorists as enemy combatants. Liberals prefer the law enforcement model, where terrorists and would-be terrorists are prosecuted for crimes, or else left alone. That is what has happened here in Minnesota, where a number of Somalis have either left the country to fight with al Shabaab, ISIS, or other terrorists groups, or have been apprehended while attempting to do so.

Five Somalis are now being prosecuted in federal court in Minneapolis for trying to go to Syria to join ISIS. Their defense? They aren’t criminals, they are enemy combatants! The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

Five Twin Cities men accused of plotting to go to fight alongside ISIL in Syria are asking a federal judge to drop murder conspiracy charges on grounds [sic] that they have “combatant immunity” under both common and international law.

They say combatants are immune from criminal prosecutions for acts of war, including murder, against military targets.

It’s almost enough to make you think the Bush administration was right all along.